Lesia Vasylenko, Ukrainian opposition MP, refugee near kyiv, called, Thursday, March 24, on franceinfo at “boycott” French companies that make “money” on “the life of Ukrainian children”. The pressure is increasingly strong on the French groups which have decided to stay in Russia. The elected official particularly points “Auchan, Metro, Leroy Merlin, Danone, Nestlé” and ask the French “to stop buying the products of these companies”.
franceinfo: What is your state of mind after a month of war?
Lesia Vasylenko: It is a date that we mark with great sadness. Ukraine has been at war for a month. A war that Putin hoped to win in three days, a war that Ukraine hoped to end in three days hoping to be victorious over the Russian armies. Anyway, it’s still going on and I think it’s going to last even longer. For how long ? It will depend on the support that Ukraine can receive because Putin is not going to stop. Yes, there must be a greater international effort.
Do you have any information that the Russians have committed war crimes?
Absoutely. The whole Russian operation and aggression is a great total war crime, a crime against humanity.
Every day it seems more and more that Putin is carrying out a real genocide of the Ukrainians.
Lesia Vasylenkoat franceinfo
There are cities like Volnovakha that are destroyed where there is no more life. There is Mariupol, there is Chernihiv. Hundreds of thousands of people who are besieged, without water, without electricity, who have been living in cold basements for a month already and who cannot even leave their town because every time they try to leaving their city, they are struck by the Russian armies, either from the sky or from the ground with weapons. The majority of war victims are civilians, women and children. They’re not even soldiers.
Do you expect more from Westerners?
We must go further. We had to go further eight years ago, when Russia invaded Ukraine for the first time in February 2014. We already had to go further. You always have to go further. We need more weapons. I was very happy to hear that Greece is going to get more weapons to protect itself from Turkey. But it is Ukraine that needs weapons. In addition, we need economic actions so that Russia cannot support itself and its armies.
It is absolutely shocking that there are still French companies that continue to operate in Russia.
Lesia Vasylenkoat franceinfo
It is for example Auchan, Metro, Leroy Merlin, Danone, Nestlé. All these companies say that they will stay on the Russian market since the other companies have left. But it’s money that all these companies, Danone, Nestlé, Auchan, Metro, Leroy Merlin make on the lives of Ukrainians, on the lives of Ukrainian children.
Do you morally condemn these French companies?
Not just morally. Every Frenchman can do something to help a Ukrainian and it’s very easy. You can stop buying products from these companies. Stop shopping at Auchan. You have several other supermarkets. Stop going to Leroy Merlin. There are plenty of other stores that give you the same kinds of products. You can boycott them.